Are Americans Fat Because of Cheap Food?Why are Americans so fat? Is it because of the sedentary lifestyle, expensive healthy food, or is it because of socioeconomic status, race or geography? The answer is no, according to researchers from Rand Corporation and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, who denied all these reasons.

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Avoid Fired Foods If You Have Wrong Genes!Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School argued that obesity is a complex condition that has a genetic basis but requires environmental influence to manifest itself. They also believe that…

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Can Chocolate Pill Prevent Heart Disease?To find out more, a pill has been made to contain the nutrients in dark chocolate and it is used in a large study that intends to examine if there are health benefits from chocolate's ingredients minus the sugar and fat. This will probably be the first large study that looks at cocoa flavanols that have been found by previous smaller studies to improve blood pressure, cholesterol, use of insulin, and other heart related factors.

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Can Coffee Lovers Be Spared From Diabetes?Coffee is one of the world's most popular drinks, but it is frequently being blamed because of the caffeine contained therein. That is why people have been advised not to consume too much coffee. Nevertheless, a new study suggested that an extra cup of coffee might be associated with a lower risk of Type-2 diabetes.

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Can Weight-Loss Surgery Reverse Diabetes?People who are overweight and obese have a much higher chance of getting Type-2 diabetes, compared to those with a healthy weight. A paper published online March 31, 2014 in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ argued that performing weight-loss surgery on obese patients with Type-2 diabetes could effectively reverse the disease…

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Effect Of Stress Eating On Heart DiseaseA study conducted by researchers from The Ohio State University found that women who experienced one or more stressful events the day prior to eating just one single high-fat meal could potentially had an 11-pound weight gain over the course of a year. The paper was published in the journal ‘Biological Psychiatry’.

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Has Childhood Obesity Been Declined in America?Earlier studies have suggested childhood obesity in the United States was beginning to turn around and kids in some places are becoming thinner. In fact, earlier this year, CDC reported obesity was starting to decline among preschoolers. But data from very large surveys showed that all types of obesity are on the rise across the country, and the very fattest children might be getting worse.

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Has Obesity Rate Been Curbed?Despite the effort exerted by governments around the world to fight against obesity epidemic, it seems that not one country has succeeded in lowering the obesity rates in 33 years. This was revealed by a team of researchers from the University of Washington who analyzed 1,769 studies, surveys, and reports on obesity around the world from 1980 to 2013.

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How
Can Bionic Pancreas Benefit Type-1 Diabetics?In a paper published June 15, 2014 in
the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’, researchers from Boston
University and Massachusetts General Hospital revealed they have
developed an artificial pancreas that can monitor blood sugar and
automatically dispenses the required amount of insulin or glucagon.

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How Is Parenting Style Linked To Child Obesity?Among many others, unhealthy diet with plenty of saturated fat and lack of physical activities are always being accused as the main culprits that cause the obesity epidemic. Recently, researchers from McGill University and Concordia University identified another link that could lead to childhood obesity - parenting style.

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How Is Unemployment Linked To Aging And Heart Disease?According to a recent study, the stress of long-term joblessness might cause men to genetically age faster. Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oulu, Finland reported that young men who had been jobless for 500 days or more experienced a significant shortening of their telomeres…

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How Nuts Can Reduce Death Risk From Heart Disease?A recent large study by researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who ate nuts on a daily basis were 20 percent less likely to die from heart disease, cancer or any other cause over 30 years than people who did not eat them, and nuts seem to help lose weight, too.

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Is Coconut A Healthy Food?It seems that coconut is a food that should be avoided. But lately, people are pouring coconut into coffee and spreading it on toast, lured by endorsement from celebrities and enticed by promise that coconut can banish belly fat, boost heart health and even stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Mental Deficits Might Be Caused By Heart Disease!According to a new study, young adults with cardiac risk factors like high blood pressure and elevated glucose levels could have significantly worse cognitive function in middle age. Researchers from University of California, San Francisco and other institutions published their findings online March 31, 2014 in journal ‘Circulation’.

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New Guidelines For Doctors To Fight Obesity!In November 2013, new guidelines were issued by a group of medical organizations that include the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and the Obesity Society to fight the nation’s obesity epidemic. Doctors are urged to act aggressively to help patients lose weight.

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Prevent Heart Disease By Veggies And Fruits!Previous studies have found that middle-aged adults whose diet consists of a high proportion of fruits and vegetables are less likely to have a heart attack or stroke, but the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption during young adulthood and heart disease later in life was less clear.

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Role Of Inflammation In Causing Heart DiseaseOn the other hand, inflammation has been placed an equally important role as cholesterol. Inflammation is an essential part of the body’s healing system because without it, injuries would fester and simple infections could be deadly. Its aim is to defend the body against bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders, to remove debris, and to help repair damaged tissue.

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Should You Run For Your Life?It has long been known that exercise could prolong life if one has at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. But a new study found that the risk of heart disease and stroke could greatly be reduced if one can run as little as 30 to 60 minutes a week (or just 5 to 10 minutes a day), regardless of how fast one runs.

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Stay
Active All Day To Prevent Heart Disease!Researchers from the Swedish School of
Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm and other institutes found
that a generally active life, even without regular exercise
sessions, could lead to better heart health and greater longevity.

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Smartphone App Can Save Cardiac Arrest Victims!PulsePoint is a smartphone app created
to alerts users when someone is in cardiac arrest nearby. On May 9,
2014, a victim who had collapsed outside a gym used the app to alert
a bystander who later performed CPR to him and saved his life.

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Watch Out Heart Disease Even If You Seem Healthy!A study conducted by researchers from The Ohio State University found that women who experienced one or more stressful events the day prior to eating just one single high-fat meal could potentially had an 11-pound weight gain over the course of a year. The paper was published in the journal ‘Biological Psychiatry’.

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What Can Be Done To Prevent Diabetes?Weight is the single most contributing environmental factor in the development of Type-2 diabetes, and a person’s weight can always be controlled. Intentional weight loss could not only prevent or control Type-2 diabetes but also improve other obesity-related risk factors of coronary artery disease, including dyslipidaemia (unhealthy blood cholesterol levels) and hypertension.

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What Is All About The New Cholesterol Guidelines?Instead of placing emphasis on cholesterol levels, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have written a set of new cholesterol guidelines that focuses on an individual’s specific risk for heart attack and stroke. The guidelines are the result of the latest medical research.

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What Is Cardiomyopathy?Cardiomyopathy is a heart disease of abnormal heart muscle. Heart muscle of a patient with cardiomyopathy becomes enlarged, thick or rigid. Some patients might have their muscle tissue in the heart being replaced with scar tissue, though this is very rare.

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What So Bad About Trans Fat?A statement released on November 7, 2013 by FDA indicated that the government agency would require food makers to gradually phase out artificial trans fats. Such measure is believed to be able to potentially prevent about 20,000 heart attacks and some 7,000 heart disease related deaths a year.

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Will Passive Smoking Cause Heart Disease?In 1992, a paper published in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ estimated that second-hand smoke exposure was responsible for 35,000 to 40,000 deaths per year in the United States in the early 1980s. The absolute and attributable risk increase of heart disease due to second-hand smoke was 2.2 and 23 percent respectively.

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Why And How You Should Care For Your Heart?World Health Organization (WHO) ranks cardiovascular disease as the top cause of death globally. Cardiovascular diseases refer to all diseases of the heart and circulation, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, congenital heart disease and stroke. They were responsible for about 17.3 million deaths in 2008…

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Why Is Diet Soda Not Healthy?Overweight people are possible targets for chronic diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and Type-2 diabetes. Scientists and researchers are trying for years to find out why and how artificial sweeteners can possibly make people gain weight. And finally, researchers unveiled a possible answer: artificial sweeteners might disrupt the bacteria in some people’s bodies.

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Why Junk Foods Should Not Totally Be Banned For Kids?While most parents have good intention to ban their kids for junk foods, tight restrictions on these foods seem to backfire. Trying to let children feel like they have some control over portion size of snacks is better than just restrict them from eating.

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Why Prediabetes Should Not Be Ignored?When a person has a blood sugar level higher than normal but not high enough to be a diabetic, he or she is said to have prediabetes. Prediabetes, also known as borderline diabetes, usually has no obvious symptom. Yet, the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes and other serious health conditions including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure and stroke would be higher.